Because in the End
by Chaotica
Summary: Dib and Angst, what more can you ask for?


A/N: This was mostly influenced by 'In the End' by Linkin Park since three of my local radio stations each play it like five times a day.  
Disclaimer: I don't own shit in this.  
  
Because in the End  
  
Dark cells opened with clangs and creaks. Prisoners of war stirred in their cots and got up reluctantly. If they hadn't large creatures that looked like walking piles of blades would pull them out, the guards here were merciless.   
He blinked and dusted off his gray shabby uniform. His hair had been shaved off during a lice infestation not long ago. He rubbed his head absently. He was too used to trying to get that one odd spike of hair to lie down.   
It had been so long that he had forgotten any other routine. But he had never forgotten why.  
He pushed his glasses back up on his face. One lens was missing a small piece but he could still see as he was marched in a line with others out into the harsh lights of the outside on their way to the mess hall. Gray and cold it was not treat to be in the sun around here.  
While his body moved on automatic as they were led to the tables for their morning meal his mind played back things to him. It was almost like torture.  
At fifteen years old he had gotten into a fight with his nemesis. Most of the other students had gathered around calling for either of the two to draw blood.   
Zim. The alien.   
Dib had had enough of him. He had walked right up to him in the hall and decked the green teenager in the stomach. They had fought like rival wolves until someone pulled them apart. A strong and fairly evil someone who went by the name 'Miss Bitters'. She had delighted in being able to give them detention. She had been slightly upset at being unable to give them solitary confinement.  
Solitary confinement...  
The clang of empty bowls being taken away made him realize he had to stand up. He marched with the others back outside where they were chained down on benches. Dib sat there staring dully at his feet.  
His eyes narrowed at many other thoughts.  
He had burst out of Zims house running for his life. His infiltration had been botched by that stupid robot that Zim owned. Damn that creature.  
He ducked down a street hiding behind a car.  
"You can't hide Dib!" Zim screamed searching him out. The little alien had raised himself up on those wicked spider legs. He was taller now, he passed as a very short human these days.  
Dib fumbled in his coat pulling out what could only be a stolen laser weapon. His determination was all that was holding him in place.  
"Ha gotcha!" Zim landed in front of him, he had sprung up over the car.  
Dib fired startling Zim. He hadn't known Dib had the weapon. The shot had gone wild and missed so Dib tackled him.   
Zim got tangled in his extra legs and Dibs coat. They fought, just like that one time, now that Dib was seventeen it was different.  
All that anger, all that rage.  
Dibs mind flickered back to a point just before that fight. In his room his sister had hurt him some, something about her missing game. His father was no where to be found. He had nothing.  
He even doubted why he fought. Mankind was a joke, as far as he could see it was useless.   
He hit the wall in his frustration. A poster fell to the floor. He picked up a stack of magazines and threw them across the room. Soon he was thrashing his own things, breaking and splintering, ripping and tearing.  
He just couldn't let Zim win was all. He couldn't give the alien that kind of satisfaction.  
But he couldn't win either.  
He had meant to kill Zim right then and hope Zim gave him a mortal blow. Death in battle would be his honor.  
Rattling of chains. His eyes darted to the end of the row. Someone had just gone into a cardiac arrest down there. The people near him only stared or cried, or something equally useless. Death was so near to them.  
No death back then, Zim hadn't even given him that.  
After Dib had tackled him the Irken had managed to throw him off. They eyed each other dangerously. Dib rushed him. Zim jumped.  
They again were facing each other disgust in their eyes.  
Dib made to rush Zim but when the alien leapt up Dib reached and grabbed his leg throwing him down.   
Zim had cried out in surprise only to find his own laser in his face. He froze, the Human was such a bastard.  
He glowered up at Dib who didn't move.   
His hatred written on his face Dib started to squeeze the trigger. "You disappoint me."  
"No more than you disappoint me." A spider leg sprang out. Dib fell the shot flew off into the darkness striking a street light.  
Zim took the weapon and hit Dib with it.  
There had been so much blackness.  
Dib didn't cry now. With the dust stirring gently in the cool breeze. He glanced down the other end of the row. How many of them knew?   
How many of them even guessed that someone had tried to stop this. Oh he had said his 'I told you so's and had even *then* been laughed at. He had put all his trust in these people only to have them fail him in every way.  
He had almost had him, had almost won. He had gotten so far!  
Hours more they sat there, doing nothing, saying nothing. Some looked dead, some were dead.   
Eventually they were marched back to the mess hall and fed again. The same goopy green stuff they were fed before. And the day before that, and the day before that.   
Then, as the sun was lowering, they were marched back to their cells. Those deadly bladed guards had taken away those who had died in silence and forced the live ones back in the darkness.  
Zim hadn't even give him an honorable death. He had taken him to his lab, kept him there, experimented on him a little. Done things that even now Dib couldn't bring himself to think too much about.  
Irken honor seemed to be different than Human.  
Dib sat on his cot not finding it in him to sleep. He lowered his head in the darkness, because in the end, even after all of that, it never even mattered.  
  
End 


End file.
